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Danish administrator PKA vows to maintain yield guarantees

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DENMARK - Danish pensions administrator PKA has become the latest firm in the country to state explicitly that it will not renege on yield guarantees made to its members.

In a statement, it said: "PKA has no plans to change either its members' pensions, or the guaranteed part."

PKA administers labour-market pensions for the eight funds that own it. At the end of last year, it managed assets of around DKK122bn (€16.4bn).

The firm said: "For many years, PKA has worked to ensure that the PKA pension funds are able to meet the new demands from the EU (Solvency II), and the PKA pension funds are now well equipped for the new requirements."

PKA was seeking to reassure pension scheme members amid the current public furore surrounding major Danish pension fund Sampension.

Sampension - which manages DKK111bn in assets - last month received final approval from the Danish Financial Services Authority to abolish the yield guarantees on its pension scheme.

The regulator said the abolition of guarantees did not break any rules, pointing out that Sampension's move had been made with the agreement of the collective bargaining partners.

Sampension said the guarantees had to go if it was to meet the upcoming Solvency II requirements.

The PKA said: "PKA has already offered members a pensions choice in autumn 2008, which resulted in a large proportion of the members opting for a higher overall pension in exchange for the guarantee that was given to all new members."

At that point, many members with high guarantees voluntarily chose a 0% guarantee in return for a 10% higher total pension.

A large part of PKA's assets - which were otherwise tied up in guarantees - were then paid out into members' pensions, PKA said.

It added: "For those members who are now receiving a pension and who opted for this solution, around DKK300m extra has been paid out up till now on this basis alone."

Last month, Lærernes Pension, the Danish Teachers' Pension Fund, said publicly that it would not withdraw its pledges on returns.